A reading from the holy Gospel according to Mark (Mk 8:1-10)
In those days when there again was a great crowd without anything to eat, Jesus summoned the disciples and said, “My heart is moved with pity for the crowd, because they have been with me now for three days and have nothing to eat. If I send them away hungry to their homes, they will collapse on the way, and some of them have come a great distance.”
Having experienced it personally in his own body, Jesus sees and knows the limits of human stamina and the need for nourishment to sustain strength. The compassion he shows for the crowd, that he fears they will collapse on the way home, is a prelude to the Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes, where Jesus takes seven loaves of bread and a few fish to feed more than four thousand people. The disciples ask Jesus, “Where can anyone get enough bread to satisfy them here in this deserted place?” In response, Jesus performs a miracle. No man can get enough to satisfy the crowd; one true God has more than enough to satisfy, basketsful more than what satisfies. Jesus knows we come a great distance to close the gap between ourselves and him. His grace, the sustenance of true food in his body and blood, strengthens us to walk the long way back home with him.
God, help me today to remember this miracle. If I stop to look around in seemingly deserted places, places of weakness and brokenness, your many blessings are all around me, and more than enough to sustain me. More than that, you give me this life-sustaining food always in the Eucharist and the Blessed Sacrament. Thank you, Lord, for your abundant mercy!
From the Gospel acclamation: “One does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.” Saint Scholastica, pray for us!
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.